In fact, the 40-year-old, who works as a creative director at Geogrum Advertising, owns 21 bikes, including high-end brands like Moulton, Cervélo and Colnago. “You need different kinds of bicycles to ride in different kinds of environments,” he says.

Mr. Yu has spent as much as 110,000 yuan (more than $17,000) on a bike and considers their versatility an advantage over cars. “People in Beijing should update their ideas,” he says.

Forget the idea, popularized by a Chinese reality-show contestant, that it’s better to cry in a BMW than laugh on a bicycle. Two-wheeled transportation, which fell out of favor as China’s middle class began buying cars with a vengeance, has been given new life with the introduction of a luxury class of bikes.

BMW itself has gotten in on the rush, stocking its “lifestyle” stores in Beijing with cycles that range in price from 17,000 to 55,000 yuan. The BMW logo appears as a tiny circle on the frame (which is usually black), and according to spokeswoman Hedy Luo, the top seller in China is the 13,000-yuan BMW Cruise, a 24-speed aluminum model. The car maker didn’t respond to questions about bicycle sales in China.

For some Chinese consumers, luxury bikes take them a step beyond the fancy car, designer handbag or lavish home, part of what Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the New York research firm Luxury Institute, calls an “insatiable thirst” for such status symbols. “Bicycles are a perfect example,” he says. “They used to be something you had to use, then you graduate to cars, and now you might actually want a Ferrari bicycle.”

Kunming, located in Yunnan province, has about a dozen bike shops catering to wealthy buyers, says Selman Pataudi, a sports physiology teacher and avid cyclist who previously helped import high-end bikes. The “endless sprouting” of new shops around the city, he says, is a sign that entrepreneurs want to capitalize on the hunger for luxury bikes.

Their target shoppers “already have the fancy car,” says Wu Bato, who organizes bike trips around the country for Cycle China. “They don’t mind spending extra on a really expensive bike.” A friend of her recently took out a loan to splurge on a 20,000-yuan road bike, she adds.

Other bemused observers have also noticed the premium on aesthetics. In Beijing, Rupert Campbell has spotted twentysomethings walking, not riding, their bikes through the upscale Sanlitun neighborhood. Young riders gravitate toward brightly colored, fixed-gear bikes, he says — not unlike their hipster counterparts in Brooklyn and London.

A neon-green-and-black bike recently appeared in Luxury Insider, an online magazine, with a caption noting its influence by “the nostalgic Chinese black bicycle, as well as the bold colors favored by the fixed-gear sporting community.” Designed by Hong Kong retailer Shanghai Tang and Colossi Cycling, a Dutch bicycle maker, it starts at 8,000 yuan.

Bling is key, Mr. Pataudi says. “People want everything in carbon fiber. They go for the marketing and go for the buzzwords.”

Not everyone sees them only as accessories. Ines Brunn, who founded a club for fans of fixed-gear bikes, or “fixies,” counts some 1,000 members and organizes regular evening and weekend rides around Beijing.

Tucked in a quiet hutong neighborhood south of Lama Temple, Shannon Bufton operates a bike store and café called Serk. He fields questions, often about the country of manufacture, from everyone from senior citizens interested in fold-up bikes, to fashionistas looking to take their picture while on a fixed-gear bike.

“People from all walks of life are poking their heads in and asking about the bikes,” he says. “And they already get that it’s cool and that it’s a new thing.”

Comments (3 of 3)

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Inches(To be ongoing.)The next chapter timid ninety-nine physique (1/3)

9:31 am September 16, 2012

Vince wrote:

Well biking actually is good exercise. But cities need to make the air cleaner and bikers wear the proper biking protections like helmets and masks etc.